(Untitled)

[sailorhonesty]

CHARACTERS: sailorhonesty and ataraxion
LOCATION: Oxygen Gardens
WARNINGS: none!
SUMMARY: Applejack's feeling a little homesick for the farm, so of course she does what she does best - tend to what little bit of nature is on board the ship.

Comments

[umuh]

Bella had learned some time ago that she didn't generally mind weeding. In a way, it was therapeutic, if often unnecessary in the Arizona heat. Cactus gardens didn't need the kind of upkeep gardens that were actually meant to grow and prosper did, such as in Washington. Then again, Charlie didn't so much have a garden as the attempts of one her mother had started years ago.

Bella let her hand run over the leaves of a plant she almost recognized, figuring the chances were fairly good that anything harmful to the skin wasn't down around here. Turning her head toward someone's voice, she found herself passing by the speaker. Almost on accident. Was she talking to the plants?

Not that Bella had any place to talk, but the idea did make her smile.

Unfortunately she wasn't terribly social, so she waited a moment to see if the other girl had caught wind of her being here before she could maybe, just maybe, get away again.

Which is when she tripped over nothing and flailed to not fall right into the plants, landing awkwardly on hands and knees on the floor.

[sailorhonesty]

Applejack paused as she went to go back to her gardening, getting the odd feeling that she was being watched. When she turned her head to look over her shoulder, she caught sight of Bella flailing and stood from her crouched position, going to help her before her balance failed on her for the third time that evening, making her fall flat on her face.

With a small grunt, she lifted herself up, sitting on her knees as she rubbed at her head underneath the cowboy hat sitting on top of it. "Are y'all a'ight?" she asked, more concerned about the well being of the other person than her own.

[umuh]

One day the ponies turned human would have better luck walking than Bella did, despite being human all her life. Bella gathered herself up, pushing back so she rested on her knees and the balls of her feet. "I'm fine," she said, putting on enough of a smile to pass muster as okay. "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, that's all."

Not that she would have been less likely to trip if she had, but the fiction felt kinder. "I didn't mean to interrupt. Are you okay?" She was concerned that she'd inadvertently surprised the other girl, and ended up causing her harm. Being clumsy on her own was one thing. Getting others into trouble for it? Quite another.

[sailorhonesty]

"Ah'm fine. Still ain't used t' walkin' on two hooves af'er all." Applejack brushed her jumpsuit off before attempting to stand again, wobbling a little bit and giving a triumphant grin when she found her balance. To her that was an achievement in its own merit.

After testing her feet, she looked up at the human girl, holding a dirty-covered hand out. "Y'all didn' in'errupt me either. Name's Applejack."

[umuh]

Bella took Applejack's hand, arriving at the conclusion that she was of the same sort as Big Mac and Rarity after that hoof comment. "I'm Bella. It's nice to meet you." Her handshake was firm enough, if nothing remarkable.

Bella was doing her best to pull off a whole lot of unremarkable. On the bright side, unlike how it'd been in Forks, she really wasn't anything new, so everyone's mutual curiosity was bound to wear off. She looked forward to getting home, and in the meantime, fading into the general background.

"You don't happen to know someone named Rarity, do you? Or a guy called Big Mac."

[sailorhonesty]

She blinked a little at the question before a wide smile plastered itself across her face. "Sure as sugar do, sugarcube. Big Mac's mah big brother an' Rarity's one o' mah best friends. If y'all're a friend o' theirs, then y'all're a friend o' mine."

That was the way it went in the Apple family after all. Applejack let go of Bella's hand after noticing she'd maybe shook it too hard, tilting her head in a friendly indication.

[umuh]

Friends might have been a stretch. Bella was surprised at how little the thought of them calling themselves her friend was, and how much she liked them -- past the weird fetish they all seemed to thrive on. Still, there were weirder things in space, and she'd figured she'd met at least one of them. Friendly faces, and friendly people, were to be appreciated when run across.

Her smile was that much warmer when her hand fell away, flexing slightly to work out the kink it'd developed. "I didn't realize you were related. Must be nice having him around." Bella wasn't sure she'd say the same for her mother, or Charlie... if she would be slightly more likely in Charlie's case. If her mom was here, she'd be worrying about her most the time, if it'd also give her a focus of something to do.

"Did you garden back home," she asked, looking past Applejack to the surrounding greenery.

[sailorhonesty]

Bella would learn that the magic of friendship could make anything stretch. Plus Ponyvillians were naturally friendly...well, unless you were someone like say Zecora. But after they got to know you, they were friendly enough. She gave the human girl a small smile in apology for the handshake before turning her attention back to the ferns she'd been tending to, her hands finding their way to her hips.

"Sure is, but Ah can't help but worry 'bout th' rest o' the family back home." Applejack paused, tilting her head. "Well, not so much garden as apple buckin'. Mah family owns the biggest apple orchard in Equestria, Sweet Apple Acres. It's mah destiny t' take over th' farm. Tha's what my cutie mark means."

[umuh]

Place names that sounded right out of a children's book, if none Bella had ever read. She nodded along, smiling in encouragement, and at least pulled out that Applejack had apparently been named for the family business. Which would have driven Bella up a wall -- her name did in full as it was -- but not everyone handled things like she did.

Applejack's last statement made no sense at all. "Your cutie mark?" Did she mean some kind of birthmark, or even mole? "Why, what is it?"

[sailorhonesty]

"It's a mark that tells ya what yer special talent is," she explained, waving a hand in elaboration.

"Ya don't get it 'till a particular age, but it's what yer destined t' be. Like mine. Ah tried livin' th' high life in Manehattan but it just wasn't fer me, an' then mah pal RD's Sonic Rainboom showed me th' way home. Ah knew my destiny was t' buck apples and make th' farm rich."

[umuh]

A mark, or a tattoo? "That sounds... really nice. If it tells you what you're good at, and helps you figure things out. There's a few people I know who could benefit from something like that."

Smiling, Bella shuffled the oddity of it all into the corner of her mind where she was stashing oddities.